Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 246

1086 This mouth of the Rhone was much used by the Massilians for the purposes of commerce with the interior of Gaul, and the carriage of the supplies of tin which they obtained thence.

1087 The manner in which Pliny here expresses himself shows that he doubts the fact of such a place having even existed; it is mentioned by none of the preceding geographers, and of those who followed him Stephen of Byzantium is the only one who notices it. An inscription was found however in the reign of Charles V. of France, in which it was stated that Ataulphus, king of the Visigoths, selected Heraclea as his place of residence. On the faith of this inscription, Spon and Ducange have placed Heraclea at the modern Saint-Gilles, and other writers at Saint-Remy, where the inscription was found. Unfortunately, however, Messrs. Devic and Vaissette, in their “History of Languedoc,” have proved that this inscription is of spurious origin.

1088 The “Fossæ Marianæ” are also mentioned by Ptolemy and Solinus; though they differ in the situation which they have respectively assigned them. They were formed by Marius when advancing to dispute the passage of the Rhone with the Cimbri, who had quitted Spain for the purpose of passing the Pyrenees and invading Italy, in the year B.C. 102. There is considerable difficulty in determining their position, but they are supposed to have commenced at the place now called the Camp of Marius, and to have terminated at the eastern mouth of the Rhone near the present Arles.

1089 Pliny is the first who mentions the name of this lake, though previous writers had indicated its existence. Strabo informs us that above the mouth of the Rhone there is a large lake that communicates with the sea, and abounds in fish and oysters. Brotier and D’Anville identify it with the present lake of Martigues or of Berre.

1090 D’Anville takes this place to be the present town of Martigues; Brotier thinks that it was situate on the spot now called Le Cap d’Œil, near the town of Saint-Chamas; and Bouche, the historian of the Province, places it at Marignane, on the east side of the lake already mentioned.

1091 “Campi Lapidei,” called by the natives at the present day “La Crau;” probably from the same Celtic root as our word “Crags;” though Bochart derives it from the Hebrew. Æschylus and Hyginus speak of this combat of Hercules, and Mela relates that being engaged in a mortal struggle with Albion and Geryon, the sons of Neptune, he invoked the aid of Jupiter, on which a shower of stones fell from the heavens and destroyed his antagonists. Those on this plain are said to be the remains of the stony shower. It is supposed by the scientific that many of these stones are aërolites, and that tradition has ingeniously adapted this story to their real origin. The vicinity of Tunbridge Wells presents a somewhat similar appearance.

1092 The people probably of the site of the present isle of Camargue.

1093 They probably inhabited the district south of the Durance, between it and the Rhone.

1094 They inhabited the country in which the present Avignon, Orange, Cavaillon, and perhaps Carpentras are situate.

1095 They are thought by Hardouin to have dwelt in the vicinity of the present town of Talard in the department of the Hautes Alpes.

1096 They inhabited the eastern part of the departments of the Drôme and the Vaucluse.

1097 Their territory comprehended the southern part of the department of the Ain, the department of the Isère, the canton of Geneva, and part of Savoy.

1098 It was said to have been colonized from Phocæa, a town of Ionia in Asia Minor. Lucan in his Third Book more than once falls into the error of supposing that it was colonized from Phocis in Greece.

1099 We learn from Justin, B. xliii., that this privilege, as well as others, and a seat at the public shows, were granted to the Massilians by the Roman Senate, in return for their sympathy and assistance after the city had been taken and plundered by the Gauls.

1100 According to D’Anville the present Cap de l’Aigre, though Mannert takes it to be the Cap de la Croisette.

1101 D’Anville takes this to be the same as the present Port de la Ciotat.

1102 Probably occupying the south-east of the department of the Var. It is supposed by Hardouin that the village of Ramatuelle, near the coast, south of the Gulf of Grimaud, represents the ancient name; and D’Anville and other writers are of the same opinion.

1103 Probably the country around the modern Brignole and Draguignan was inhabited by them.

1104 They inhabited Verignon and Barjols in the southern part of the department of the Var.

1105 D’Anville takes this to be the place called Agaï, between Frejus and La Napoule: but in so doing he disregards the order in which they are given by Pliny.

1106 “The Forum of Julius.” Now Frejus. As its name implies, it was a colony of the Eighth Legion. It was probably called ‘Pacensis,’ on some occasion when peace had happily been made with the original inhabitants, and ‘Classica’ from the fleet being stationed there by Augustus.

1107 Still known as the Argens, from the silvery appearance of the water. It has choked up the harbour with sand, in which probably the ships of Augustus rode at anchor.

1108 They inhabited the coast, in the vicinity of the modern Cannes.

1109 They are supposed to have inhabited the country of Grasse, in the south-east of the department of the Var.

1110 According to Ptolemy they had for their capital the town of Salinæ; which some take to be the modern Saluces, others Castellane, and others again Seillans, according to Holstein and D’Anville.

1111 D’Anville thinks that they lived in the valley of Queyras, in the department of the Hautes Alpes, having a town of the same name.

1112 The Adunicates are supposed by Hardouin to have inhabited the department of the Basses Alpes, between the towns of Senez and Digne.

1113 The modern Antibes. Mount Cema is the present Monte-Cemelione.

1114 “Arelate of the Sixth Legion,” a military colony; now the city of Arles. It is first mentioned by Cæsar, who had some ships built there for the siege of Massilia or Marseilles. It was made a military colony in the time of Augustus.

1115 “Beterræ of the Seventh Legion.” The modern town of Beziers.

1116 “Arausio of the Second Legion,” now Orange, a town in the department of Vaucluse.

1117 Now Valence, in the department of the Drôme.

1118 Now Vienne, in the department of the Isère.

1119 Aix, in the department of the Bouches du Rhône.

1120 Avignon, in the Vaucluse.

1121 Apt, in the department of Vaucluse.

1122 Riez, in the department of the Basses Alpes.

1123 The modern Alps, near Viviers, is probably built on the site of this town. The text shows that it was different from Augusta, probably the Alba Augusta mentioned by Ptolemy, though D’Anville supposes them to have been the same place.

1124 Some writers take this place to be the present Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux, in the department of the Drôme.

1125 Probably so called from its lofty position, and supposed by D’Anville to have been situate on the modern Mont Ventoux, or “Windy Mountain.” Other writers place it at La Croix Haute, near the city of Avignon.

1126 There is a village in the department of the Var, six leagues from Toulon, called Bormes, not improbably from these people.

1127 The modern Cavaillon, in the department of the Vaucluse.

1128 Now Carcassone, in the department of the Aude.

1129 Probably Saint Tibéry, on the river Hérault.

1130 Now Carpentras. Ptolemy also makes mention of the Memini.

1131 Probably situate on the river Cœnus of Ptolemy, between the eastern mouth of the Rhone and Massilia. Probably the name in Pliny should be “Cœnienses.”

1132 Walckenaer places this people in the vicinity of Cambo, in the arrondissement of Bayonne, in the department of the Basses Pyrenees.

1133 In names similar to this, as Festus remarks, “Forum” has the meaning of “Market;” much as that word is used as a compound in our names, such as Market Drayton, &c. Bouche thinks that by this place is meant the modern Le Canet: but D’Anville takes it to be Gonfaron, a corruption, he thinks, of Voconfaron from the Latin name.

1134 The site of Glanum was about a mile to the south of the village of Saint Remi, between Cavaillon and Arles. On the spot there are the remains of a Roman mausoleum and a triumphal arch.

1135 The people of Luteva, now Lodève, in the department of the Hérault.

1136 “The people of Forum Neronis,” which place has been supposed by some to have been the same with Carpentoracte: D’Anville supposes Forcalquier to have been Forum Neronis, while Walckenaer takes Momas to have been that place. From the text it would appear to have been identical with Luteva.

1137 The modern Nismes, which in its ruins contains abundant marks of its ancient splendour. The family of the Antonines came from this place. The remains of its aqueduct still survive, containing three rows of arches, one above the other, and 180 feet in height.

1138 The people of the present Pézenas, in the department of the Hérault.

1139 Their chief town is supposed to have been Albiga, now Albi, in the department of Tarn.

1140 The inhabitants of the present Senez in the Basses Alpes. De la Saussaye says that their coins read ‘Samnagenses,’ and not ‘Sanagenses,’ and that they inhabited Senas, a town in the vicinity of Aix.

1141 Their chief town was Tolosa, now Toulouse, in the department of the Haute-Garonne.

1142 They probably lived in the vicinity of the present Montauban, in the department of the Tarn et Garonne.

1143 Probably the inhabitants of the site of the modern town of Tarascon. There is, however, considerable doubt as to these two names.

1144 Poinsinet thinks that they occupied Vabres, a place situate in the south of the department of Aveyron.

1145 Now Vaison, in the department of Vaucluse.

1146 “The Grove of Augustus.” This town appears to have been overflowed by the river Druma, which formed a lake on its site. Its remains were still to be seen in the lake in modern times, and from it the town on the margin of the lake takes its name of Le Luc.

1147 Under the name “formula” Pliny perhaps alludes to the official list of the Roman government, which he had consulted for the purposes of accuracy.

1148 Bouche places the site of this people at the village of Avançon, between Chorges and Gap, in the department of the Hautes Alpes.

1149 The present town of Digne, in the department of the Basses Alpes.

1150 It is not known from what points these measurements of our author are taken.

1151 The modern names of these localities will form the subject of consideration when we proceed, in c. 7, to a more minute description of Italy.

1152 This passage is somewhat confused, and may possibly be in a corrupt state. He here speaks of the Apennine Alps. By the “lunata juga” he means the two promontories or capes, which extend east and west respectively.

1153 This seems to be the meaning of “alumna,” and not “nurse” or “foster-mother,” as Ajasson’s translation has it. Pliny probably implies by this antithesis that Rome has been “twice blessed,” in receiving the bounties of all nations of the world, and in being able to bestow a commensurate return. Compared with this idea, “at once the nurse and mother of the world” would be tame indeed!

1154 By adding its deified emperors to the number of its divinities. After what Pliny has said in his Second Book, this looks very much like pure adulation.

1155 Or “Great Greece.” This is a poor and frivolous argument used by Pliny in support of his laudations of Italy, seeing that in all probability it was not the people of Greece who gave this name to certain cities founded by Greek colonists on the Tarentine Gulf, in the south of Italy; but either the Italian tribes, who in their simplicity admired their splendour and magnificence, or else the colonists themselves, who, in using the name, showed that they clung with fondness to the remembrance of their mother-country; while at the same time the epithet betrayed some vanity and ostentation in wishing thus to show their superiority to the people of their mother-country.

1156 The comparison of its shape to an oak leaf seems rather fanciful; more common-place observers have compared it to a boot: by the top (cacumen) he seems to mean the southern part of Calabria about Brundisium and Tarentum; which, to a person facing the south, would incline to the coast of Epirus on the left hand.

1157 The ‘Parma’ or shield here alluded to, would be one shaped like a crescent, with the exception that the inner or concave side would be formed of two crescents, the extremities of which join at the central projection. He says that Cocinthos (now Capo di Stilo) would in such case form the central projection, while Lacinium (now Capo delle Colonne) would form the horn at the extreme right, and Leucopetra (now Capo dell’ Armi) the horn on the extreme left.

1158 The Tuscan or Etrurian sea, and the Adriatic.

1159 The Varus, as already mentioned, was in Gallia Narbonensis, while the Arsia, now the Arsa, is a small river of Istria, which became the boundary between Italy and Illyricum, when Istria was annexed by order of Augustus to the former country. It flows into the Flanaticus Sinus, now Golfo di Quarnero, on the eastern coast of Istria, beyond the town of Castel Nuovo, formerly Nesactium.

1160 Now the Pescara.

1161 Now Palo, a city on the coast of Etruria, eighteen miles from Portus Augusti, at the mouth of the Tiber.

1162 This distance is overstated: the circuit is in reality about 2500 miles.

1163 For instance, from Pola to Ravenna, and from Iadera to Ancona.

1164 Sardinia is in no part nearer to Italy than 140 miles.

1165 Issa, now Lissa, is an island of the Adriatic, off the coast of Liburnia; it is not less than eighty miles distant from the nearest part of the coast of Italy.

1166 That is to say, the south, which was so called by the Romans: the meaning being that Italy extends in a south-easterly direction.

1167 Italy was divided by Augustus into eleven districts; the ninth of which nearly corresponded to the former republic of Genoa.

1168 The modern Nizza of the Italians, or Nice of the French.

1169 Now the Paglione.

1170 Livy mentions four of these tribes, the Celelates, the Cerdiciates, the Apuani, and the Friniates.

1171 Or “Long-haired.” Lucan, B. i. l. 442, 3, refers to this characteristic of the Alpine Ligurians:

Et nunc tonse Ligur, quondam per colla decora

Crinibus effusis toti prælate Comatæ.

1172 It is probably the ruins of this place that are to be seen at the present day at Cimiez in the vicinity of Nice.

1173 The modern Monaco.

1174 These tribes have been already mentioned in c. 5, as belonging to the province of Gallia Narbonensis.

1175 It is supposed that they dwelt near the present Vinadio in Piedmont.

1176 It is supposed that they inhabited the vicinity of the present town of Chorges, between Embrun and Gap.

1177 They probably dwelt near the modern town of Montserrat.

1178 They probably dwelt near the modern Biela, eight leagues from Verceil in Piedmont.

1179 Some writers place them near the modern city of Casale.

1180 Their locality is supposed by some writers to be near the present Cortemiglia, five leagues from the town of Alba.

1181 Now the Roya, flowing between very high banks.—Lucan, B. ii. l. 422, speaks of the Rutuba as “Cavus,” “flowing in deep cavities.”

1182 Probably the present Vintimiglia.

1183 The modern Arozia.

1184 The present town of Albenga.—Livy, B. xxix. c. 5, calls the inhabitants Albingauni.

1185 Now called Vaï or Ve, and Savona.

1186 The modern Bisagna, which waters Genua, the modern Genoa.

1187 Now the Lavagna, which also washes Genoa.

1188 “The Port of the Dolphin;” now Porto Fino.

1189 Probably the ruins called those of Tregesa or Trigoso are those of Tigullia.

1190 Now Sestri di Levante.

1191 The modern Magra.

1192 Of which they were considered as a chain, and called the Apennine Alps.

1193 Now the Po.

1194 According to D’Anville, now Castel Arqua.

1195 Now Tortona. It was a city of importance, and there are considerable ruins still in existence.

1196 The modern Voghera, upon the river Staffora.

1197 Probably the present Verrua.

1198 Called by the Ligurians Bodincomagus, by the Romans Industria. Its remains are to be found at Monteù di Po, a few miles below Chevasso, on the right bank of the river.

1199 The modern Pollenza, a small town on the river Tenaro near Alba.

1200 Its site has been placed at Chieri near Turin, and at Carrù on the Tanaro, a few miles south of Bene, which is perhaps the most probable.

1201 The modern Valenza.

1202 Placed by D’Anville at Vico near Mondovi, and by other writers at Carmagnole and Saluzzo: but Durandi has shown that the ruins still to be seen near Bene in Piedmont are those of Augusta Vagiennorum. Bene is supposed to be a corruption of Bagienna, the name of the town in the middle ages. The name of the Vagienni also probably survives in that of Viozenna, an obscure place in that vicinity.

1203 Still called Alba; a town near the northern foot of the Apennines. It probably had its appellation from Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of Pompey the Great, who conferred many privileges on the Cisalpine Gauls. It was the birth-place of the Emperor Helvius Pertinax.

1204 The modern Aste.

1205 The modern Acqui, so called from its mineral springs. It is again mentioned by Pliny in B. XXXI. Numerous remains of the ancient town have been discovered.

1206 Ansart observes that this measurement is nearly correct.

1207 For an account of this see Herodotus, B. i. c. 94, Tacitus, Ann. B. iv. c. 55, and Velleius Paterculus, B. i. c. 1. These writers all agree as to the fact of the migration of a colony of Lydians under the conduct of Tyrrhenus to the part of Italy afterwards called Etruria. This subject however, as well as the migrations of the Pelasgi, is involved in the greatest obscurity.

1208 From the Greek verb θύειν “to sacrifice,” he implies:—from their custom of frequently sacrificing, says Servius, on the Xth Book of the Æneid. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says that they were from their frequent sacrifices called θυόσκοοι. These are probably fanciful derivations; but there is no doubt that the people of Etruria were for several centuries the instructors of the Romans in the arts of sacrifice, augury, and divination.

1209 The ruins of Luna, which was destroyed by the Normans in the middle ages, are still visible on the banks of the Magra. The modern name of the port is Golfo della Spezzia.

1210 The modern city of Lucca has its site and name.—Livy, B. xli. c. 13, informs us that this colony was founded in the year of the city 576, during the Consulship of Claudius Pulcher and Sempronius Gracchus.

1211 The modern city of Pisa. See Virgil, B. x. l. 179, as to the origin of this place.

1212 The modern Serchio.

1213 Now the Arno.

1214 The people of Pisa or Pisæ, a city of Elis in the Peloponnesus.

1215 Now Vadi, a small village on the sea-shore.

1216 Still called the Cecina. It entered the Tyrrhenian sea, near the port of Vada Volaterrana just mentioned.

1217 The present Piombino is supposed to have arisen from the ruins of this place.

1218 Now the Bruno.

1219 The modern Ombrone.

1220 Now known as Telamone Vecchio.

1221 There are ruins near lake Orbitello, which bear the name of Cosa; Ansedonia was said to have risen from its ruins, and in its turn fallen to decay.

1222 Two localities have been mentioned as the site of Graviscæ, at both of which there are ancient remains: one on the right bank of the Marta, about a mile from its mouth, and the other on the sea-coast at a spot called Santo Clementino or Le Saline, a mile south of the mouth of the Marta. Probably the latter are the remains of Graviscæ, although Dennis (Etruria, i. pp. 387-395) inclines to be in favour of the former.

1223 The modern Torre Chiaruccia, five miles south of Civita Vecchia.

1224 The modern Torre di Santa Severa.